A member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, Chef Sean Sherman focuses on the revitalization and evolution of Indigenous foods systems throughout North America. Through his activism and advocacy, Sherman is helping to reclaim and celebrate the rich culinary heritage of Indigenous communities around the world. Sherman has dedicated his career to supporting and promoting Indigenous food systems and Native food sovereignty. His goal is to make Indigenous foods more accessible to as many communities as possible through the nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS) and its Indigenous Food Lab professional Indigenous kitchen and training center. Working to address the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways, NĀTIFS imagines a new North American food system that generates wealth and improves health in Native communities through food-related enterprises.

Sherman’s first book, “The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen,” received the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook in 2018, and he was given the 2019 Leadership Award from the James Beard Foundation. In 2021, Sean opened Minnesota’s first full-service Indigenous restaurant, Owamni, which received the 2022 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in America on top of numerous awards nationwide.

Sam Briger is the WHYY’s Fresh Air co-executive producer and interview contributor.

Luke and Linda Black Elk are food sovereignty activists and teachers of traditional plant knowledge, gardening, food preservation and foraging. They spend their time collecting and preparing traditional foods and medicines for Indigenous peoples and communities in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and beyond. Luke is a chef, focusing on the traditional foods of Turtle Island, and he is a founding board member of the Tatanka Wakpala Model Sustainable Community, which is a Native nonprofit on the Cheyenne River Nation focusing on Indigenous building design, permaculture, food sovereignty and a return to Lakota spirituality as a guide for everyday life. Linda is a renowned ethnobotanist, author and educator, and she currently serves as the Education Director at North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems. Luke is the Farm Director at Hohwoju Otunwe, a 16-acre organic farm on recovered homelands of the Oceti Sakowin in southern Minnesota. Together, Luke and Linda sit on the board of Makoce Ikikcupi, a Dakota-led nonprofit, which is a Reparative Justice project on Dakota lands.

Chef Joe Haber is the chef/owner of Tomahawks Private Dining and Catering Services. Originally going to school to be an X-ray technician, Haber found his passion for food while studying in college and has been using it as fuel to learn and rediscover his Mohawk roots since then. Hailing from a long line of Mohawk Ironworkers who helped build the great cities of the northeast, Chef Joe comes down from that high elevation to ground level, where whole ingredients and natural processes help shape the pantry and the cooking techniques he uses to explore Mohawk food through his "untrained" eyes.

Rachel Sherman, MPH, is the associate director of the Drexel Food Lab, a culinary innovation and product development lab located in the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University. She has over 15 years in the food industry having worked as a pastry chef, chocolatier and cake decorator. With a degrees in baking and pastry arts, art education and public health, she works to improve the food system and teach the next generation of food industry professionals.